


To Valhalla, My Friends

by Turkborne



Category: Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Poor Loki, Poor Thor, i wanna hug em all, kinda graphic descriptions of deaths and corpses, thanos is awful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 09:44:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12745827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turkborne/pseuds/Turkborne
Summary: Set shortly after the first post-credits scene of Thor: Ragnarok. The Asgardians have been taken captive and so have Thor and Loki. Thanos isn't pleased with how Loki left things with their deal and decides to hurt Loki in a way he didn't try the first time he had the trickster in his grasp.





	To Valhalla, My Friends

Thor was terrified. His fear wasn’t just for himself, but for his people. With the way his brother slumped in front of him he wondered if it would not have been more merciful for the people of Asgard to have perished with their beloved land. Loki didn’t cower easily, and whatever Thanos had done to him made him like this was severe. To make  _ Loki, God of Mischief,  _ fear.

He curled his hands into fists and tested the chains again. It hadn’t worked before and it wouldn’t work now but he needed to do something. After a few moments of rattling Loki spoke up, voice barely there, “Stop, just stop. You’ll rub your wrists raw before you get anywhere.”   
  
The thunderer immediately ceased his struggles and tried to catch Loki’s gaze, “Brother, look at me. Please?”   
  
Loki didn’t move.   
  
“I’m going to get us out of here. We’re going to get out of here and save our people,” Thor reassured, his voice was warm and quiet in the small cell they had been given. Most didn’t think Thor was capable of quiet. Loki knew better, that Thor could whisper but that his brother’s voice carried even when it was quiet. It had reminded Loki of thunder when a storm was at a distance even in his youth before their powers presented.

Loki let out an amused breath then spoke, “I doubt that very much, Thor.”

They sunk into quiet for a few long moments before screaming outside their cell caught their attention. The door slid open with a low hiss and Thanos dragged in one of the Asgardian refugees by her hair. She was a little thing, a young girl who would be no older than 15 in human years. Tears rolled down her face as she pleaded. Thanos didn’t spare a glance for her.

“Loki, Loki, Loki. You’ve been such a disappointment to me. You went back on our deal. I suppose I’ll have to teach you a lesson since the first one didn’t take. How fortunate that your brought the means to teach you directly to me,” Thanos rumbled. Thor glanced at him and took in just how terrified Loki was underneath his scowl.    
  
“What do you want, Thanos?” Thor growled, tugging at his chains.

_ “To break you,”  _ was the only reply that came before he snapped the girl’s neck. He dropped her limp body on the ground, stepping on her arm with a loud crunch as he moved closer to Loki. “You get to watch him break. Your brother suffers because of your betrayal. You are to blame, Loki. Guard, bring in the next Asgardian.”   
  
Thanos stepped back as another Asgardian was brought before them both, a middle aged man, likely a merchant at one point. The guard slit his throat without hesitation or an order. Thor screamed, blood dripping from his wrists. Loki watched him, horror churning in his gut.   
  
“Don’t worry. I’ll have the bodies removed tomorrow for the next batch. Your people will all be dead before we reach Earth, I promise you that,  _ your majesty _ ,” Thanos laughed darkly and left his guards to slit the throat of the next innocent, and then the next. Thor kept screaming, unable to summon any thunder through the bindings of the cuffs.

Loki wanted to hold him.

They left, bodies stacked on the floor with them and blood slicking the floor beneath their feet. Thor was silent now and it was Loki’s turn to break the quiet. He tried to be lighthearted at first, to make the situation less daunting. His voice was airy, a perfect lie even if his heart was heavy. “See, totally should have dropped me off on Sakaar instead of taking me to Midgard with you.”

“Loki, don’t,” Thor ordered, his blood dripping to the floor to mix with that of Asgard’s dead. Loki sighed. 

“I’m sorry-”

“ _ Don’t _ ,” he hissed back at Loki. “It’s not your fault. Thanos is to blame, not you.”

“I’m not sure if I can believe that, brother. If it’ll help you get through this than I shall have to agree, Thanos is to blame,” Loki quipped back. 

“You’re insufferable,” Thor sighed, gaze finally turning away from the corpses on the ground and back to Loki.

“Aw, how sweet of you to say,” he smiled at Thor. “You know, get help won’t work for this one.”

“Be quiet, Loki.”

“Fine, fine…”

  
  
  
  
  


It had been weeks in their dark little cell where the floor was tacky from dried blood and other substances the younger prince didn’t want to think of. Thor had started comforting those brought in to their deaths, speaking of a warm place in Valhalla for them. It was all he could do, at least until Thanos found out and shoved a gag in Thor’s mouth. Loki kept count of the dead and did his best to keep Thor hopeful. His bloodied wrists had healed and he stopped struggling against the chains. 

Thanos didn’t come every day to their cell, but he came on this one, smiling wide. Loki’s gut clenched in fear.”Oh, don’t look so sour you two. Today I’m only killing one Asgardian. You should thank me.”

The guards dragged in a man who was clearly beaten and tortured- one they both immediately recognized.

“Heimdall,” Loki whispered. Golden eyes looked up at the princes. He had already accepted his fate.

“He refuses to tell me what I wish to know, so I have no use for him. I was hopeful I could keep an Asgardian pet to keep you company on your last day but no matter,” Thanos mused. He grabbed Heimdall’s limp form from the guards, hand wrapped around his neck. Loki looked between the seer and Thor, blue eye filled with sadness and fear.

The crack of bones filled the room followed by the wet slap of a body hitting the floor. Loki’s heart even fell this time, but he still looked to Thor, who for the first time since their capture had started to weep.

Thanos smiled and left the room, guards following. The body left in the room with them. This time it would be several days of waiting, plenty long enough for decomposition to set in.  
  
  
  


 

 

The next few groups were larger than the first one- but Thor stopped even acknowledging them even when they tried to drag out the deaths with agony. This time, when the door opened Thanos was dragging in  Brunnhilde by her hair.

“Listen you, shithead! I’m going to tear you a new asshole! Do you hear me? You’re fucked!” She snarled. He dragged her right up to Thor and pulled out a knife, stabbing it into her neck. It was ripped back and blood spattered from her artery onto a wide-eyed Thor. She was drowning in her own blood now. 

“We’ll see you in Valhalla, Valkyrie,” Loki whispered. He didn’t have hope anymore either.  
  
  
  


 

 

Loki kept count. This was the last of the Asgardians in front of them, the last of their people. There were two left. Two little boys, one dark of hair dressed in green and one light of hair dressed in red. Thanos knew exactly what he was doing, setting this up. He wasn’t sure if Banner was somehow captured or left in space. He hoped for the latter. The last thing anyone needed was the Hulk in the hands of Thanos. It was something he would never admit to Thor. 

Loki hoped this was the last of it as he looked on. The boys held each other as they died, blood seeping slowly from the knife wounds in their sides. Loki soothed them while Thanos watched, “We’ll meet you in Valhalla, little ones.”

Thanos left then, door hissing shut behind them. Loki looked to Thor, “You’re the last Asgardian. Don’t lose hope, please. I’m right here.”  
  
  
  


 

 

Two days later the two gods were dragged from their cell and shoved through a cleaning and sanitation system. It hurt, rubbed their skin raw and pink. After they were given clothes, cleaned but bloodstained clothes that had belonged to their people and had been ripped off their corpses. It was enough for modesty Loki supposed and perhaps enough to keep the chill of space off of Thor.

He looked to his brother, wondering if he’d speak now that the gag had been removed. Thor didn’t and Loki didn’t push. He just stayed beside him providing the only thing he could- a constant presence.

They were taken to the bridge of the ship, where Thanos sat in a throne. The guards were quick to make them kneel.

Thor gasped softly and held back a sob. Loki followed his gaze out the window, to Midgard.

“Let us go down to your favored planet, King Thor. I want you close enough to hear their screams,” Thanos smiled as the ship descended.He picked a populated area that Thor knew to be Chicago, destroying it from his ship.

Millions of humans dead in moments. Thor looked on as his comrades, the Avengers fought as best as they could. SHIELD came as well, bringing their best and brightest. Thor hoped while Loki watched. 

It didn’t take long for Loki to recognize Banner as he was dragged in front of Thor and thrown to the ground. There was a collar on his neck and by the way he limply landed in front of Thor it was keeping him drugged.

“Look at your friend, Thor. Look at him, knowing he is going to die inches from his home. Tell him it’s going to be alright, that you’re going to  _ save him _ ,” Thanos laughed. Thor was breaking, shuffling closer to his comrade.

Loki took in a sharp breath. “Thor,” he started, “You don’t have to.”

“Of course he does, he’s a hero,” Thanos mocked.   
  
“Banner, look at me, please? Just look at me-” Thor started before a loud crash resounded through the room as something, no,  _ someone _ got projectile-shot into the throne room through the viewport.

The telltale gold-and-red ensemble was easy to read. Loki didn’t hesitate. “Stark! Get them out of here!”

“Oh, hey Pointbreak. Banner. Time to go, yeah?” Stark announced just before blasting a guard onto his back. Thanos stood, but so did Loki, scampering into his way. Thanos knocked him aside and his vision turned red.

It was enough. He heard Stark’s jets fire up and Thor cry out for him. Thor was safe, and thus the last of Asgard was safe. Maybe Thor would forgive him.

His vision clears and Thanos is stalking toward him. Loki welcomes death with a smile. He laughed warmly, “To Valhalla with me then? Go on, Thanos. Take your revenge.”

Only it never came. White overwhelmed his vision for a long moment until he was able to regain it and when it cleared he was in a firm grasp, falling away from Thanos’s ship. They landed on the ruins of a building and Thor ripped off loki’s cuffs while the other looked up at the scene above them. The avengers, including Banner whose collar had been removed, were fighting off Thanos.

He watched Thor summon thunder to himself, new armor wrapping about his body, all black with a cape to match. It didn’t suit him but Loki would not ask his brother not to mourn. He summoned his sedir around himself and cloaked himself in blue and black leather. Thor looked to him, silently, and waited. 

Loki nodded, “let’s go then, brother. We must avenge our people.”

 

  
  
  
  


Thor hadn’t spoken since the battle. He’d been a living ghost, shuffling about Avengers Tower. The only thing he had done actively without prodding from Loki was to wrap his arm around his brother and tug him close, hand threading into black locks when they wanted to lock Loki up again. They decided against that course of action, for which Loki was grateful if only for his brother’s sake. 

He told them what had happened to Asgard, and after. Thor held him the whole time until his eyes landed on Sif- who explained she had come to Midgard to help SHIELD but the bifrost never took her back. She held him then and met Loki’s eyes over his shoulder. He gave her a grateful look. 

Not entirely alone now, but Sif was hardly a people. She was but one.

Stark and himself had gotten into a decent banter in the moments when Thor found sleep and Loki could not. He liked Stark, if only because the man never pressed him to speak of his feelings and shared a sharp wit.

When Thor, looking at his bowl of oatmeal, one of the few things they managed to get him to eat, let out a small sob and whispered, “they’re gone.” Tony made himself scarce, slipping away to the lab with his breakfast. He never asked about it. No, that was Romanov. She pried for details later after “reviewing the security footage.”

Thor glared at her with his one eye and grit out, “leave him be.”

“Or what? We’ll never know-!” She started to counter before Thor grabbed her by the neck, cutting off her ability to breathe. Her hands clawed at his and she kicked at Thor, although he barely noticed. 

Loki waited a few moments for the tension to recoil before he realized Thor wasn’t letting her go. He steadily walked close and put his hand on Thor’s arm. “You need to let her go. Gently, Thor.”

Green eyes looked at Thor, concern and softness written in them. Thor didn’t react for a long moment but then his hold loosened. He grabbed at Loki and tugged him into a tight embrace- a sob coming from his throat.

Stark slithered behind him and grabbed Romanov whispering to her as he led her away. All Loki managed to catch between Thor’s sobs was “-has PTSD or something.”

He made a mental note to ask Stark later, rubbing gentle circles into Thor’s back. That night he couldn’t sleep and he slipped into Tony’s lab, sitting on a stool beside him. He stayed quiet for a long moment until he knew the man was at a good point to pause and stretch. 

“What is PTSD?” 

“Overheard me, huh? Come on, time for a drink. I’m not explaining this here,” Stark sighed and rubbed at his forehead spreading machine grease around. They went upstairs and talked on the balcony for a couple hours. Loki understood a little better. Stark said that Thor might need a therapist.

“Just Thor?” Loki teased.

“Oh, shut up,” Tony laughed.  
  
  
  
  


 

To Loki’s surprise therapy was helping Thor. The man could finally stand to have Loki out of his sight. There were no more awkward showers where Thor watched him through frosted glass. Loki went a few times, but crinkled his nose at the idea of returning. Instead he downloaded books on the subject and read them. 

He knew he needed to talk to someone but he couldn’t trust a therapist and sadly, that left one person who was recovering from being more broken than he was. He would wait.

At least, that’s what he planned on doing when Thor sat him down and asked him to talk. It was hours of talking sporadically over what they went through together while on the couch. The sun set and they switched from water to the microbrew beer Stark kept buying once he found one they liked.

Eventually Thor asked quietly, “What happened the first time…?”

“It’s not pretty, Thor,” Loki replied somberly, pressing closer to his brother.

“I know. Nothing ever really is. Tell me,” Thor insisted.

“Alright, alright you big brute. I’ll tell you just-” 

“I’m here, Loki. That’s not changing, ever,” Thor reassured, scooting to sprawl out on the couch, head in Loki’s lap.

“Stark was right,” Loki said with a quirk of his lips, “You are just a big puppy.”

“Stop deflecting,” Thor grumbled.

“Hrm, that’s a big word for you,” Loki teased but took a deep breath after. “You know he offered me a deal. Well, that only came after all that he did to me and it was the only way to leave his grasp.”

Thor stayed silent, watching the sky outside darken. Loki relaxed as he spoke, “if it exists as a form of torture somewhere I think he tried it. Beatings, starvation, waterboarding… I know he messed with my mind. I know there are patches of time missing and that’s terrifying. I tried to escape so many times. When I did he let the chitauri use me… He ordered them to rape me I think. I’m fuzzy on the details but-”

“Loki, you do not-”

“I want to tell you. It’s okay, Thor,” he reassured. “After all that he did having people touch me is hard. Not you, but everyone else. Even through clothes it’s often too much. Stark picked up on it without me needing to say anything. Apparently he’s had issues like us.”

“My touch is okay though?” he asked, wanting reassurance.

“Mm, you have a bit of a charge to you that others don’t. I can always tell it’s you, that I won’t be hurt or violated,” he explained softly.

“Thank you for telling me,” Thor whispered.

“You asked and I wasn’t going to tell anyone else,” loki shrugged.

“That’s not healthy,” Thor warned.

“My mind hasn’t been ‘healthy’ in a long time. You’re here and I’m not trying to play tricks. Isn’t this what you always wanted?” Loki asked.

“I always wanted you at my side. I assumed it was a given and neglected you. With our parents… I should have been better,” Thor replied. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re here now and so am I. I think we can safely say that we’re stuck together now regardless. Not to mention poor Sif,” Loki teased, trying to make the conversation a little lighter.

“I want to invite her over,” Thor said, sitting up again.

“She’s been waiting for you to be ready. She doesn’t have a brother, you know, and I’m not equipped to be a decent companion to anyone. Stark has her number. Tell me when and I’ll make that dish I made, the one that tasted like that one holiday bilgesnipe dish Volstagg favored,” Loki offered.

“You’re going to make her cry, Loki,” Thor warned. 

“Good. We all need a good cry now and then,” Loki stood and took their empty beer bottles to the recycle bin. This was a strange life, but he was looking forward to it. It seemed Thor was too. Loki couldn’t ask for anything better.

**Author's Note:**

> If I made you go ow please comment. Comments are motivation to keep writing, because without knowing people enjoy these stories they may as well stay as ideas in my head or as rp plans with a dear friend.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I do hope it was to your liking. <3


End file.
